alive
The wind in Mobei is like a blunt knife cutting flesh, blowing away not only body temperature but also hope.
Ding Guinan curled up in a depression in the lee of the sand dunes, tightening his overly loose Southern Dynasty military uniform, trying to retain a little warmth.
My stomach felt empty, as if an invisible hand was clutching and twisting it, causing pain.
He secretly licked his cracked lips, which was not the case in the first few days.
He could still eat two meals a day at that time. Although he still rushed to eat and shoveled the food into his mouth quickly, fearing that it would be gone in the next second, at least his stomach was full.
But now...
He secretly raised his eyes and looked at General Wang Mengzi who was sitting silently not far away.
The general's face was darker than the bottom of a pot, his brows were twisted into a knot, and he was staring at the torn sheepskin on the ground that was scratched all over.
The Southern Dynasty soldiers around him who used to be able to chat and laugh were now listless, leaning against the saddles, sitting or lying down, their eyes showing the same fatigue as his, and a sense of confusion that seemed to have no end.
The water bag had already deflated.
The last bit of water was given first to the scouts whose lips were so dry that they were cracked and bleeding. The horses were thin, with ribs protruding. They gnawed on the dry and thorny grass on the ground, and their breath was weak.
Ding Guinan was also anxious.
This kind of anxiety was different from the anxiety he had when he was at the hands of the Western Qiang people and was afraid of being beaten to death.
Back then, I was desperate to save my life, to survive like an animal. Now...
Now he watched General Wang pacing anxiously, and the soldiers who had once fed him now staring with hunger, and his chest began to feel choked up.
What would happen to him if they all fell? Who would feed him? Who would get him out of this damned place of nothing but sand?
For the first time, he felt that the life and death of this Southern Dynasty army was tied to his own life, Ding Guinan.
"Damn it! Another wasted trip!" a hoarse voice cursed. It was the returning exploration team. "There's not even a ghost! Are all the Beishu people dead?"
Wang Mengzi raised his head, his eyes looking murderous: "No trace at all?"
"Yes, there are a few abandoned fire pits. The ashes look like they've been there for a while. Damn, are the people of Beishuo rats? Did they burrow underground?"
There was dead silence in the team.
Ding Guinan shrank his neck and hid himself deeper.
He was afraid of seeing General Wang's look.
At this time, another team came back with two prisoners.
This was the only gain today. Two Beishuo herdsmen who came out to look for lost livestock looked terrified and trembling.
Wang Mengzi waved his hand, and several soldiers who knew a little Beishuo language came forward to question him.
After much questioning, the two herdsmen just kowtowed and begged for mercy, and kept saying that they didn't know where the main tribe had gone. They were from a small tribe and had been left behind.
The soldier who was questioning him saw that he could not get anything out of him and was about to drag the man aside to deal with him.
Ding Guinan kept listening with his ears perked up.
The two herdsmen were pushed and shoved by the soldiers. They were so frightened that they begged for mercy quickly in the Beishuo dialect with a heavy accent and crying voice.
One of them murmured desperately to the other, his voice so low it almost stuck in his throat: "Has Burhan's wrath not subsided yet? Must we all hide in the Eye of the Sacred Deer to avoid disaster? Even the sacrifices must be moved there..."
The other one suddenly elbowed him, glanced warily at the Southern Dynasty soldier next to him, and immediately shut up.
The Southern Dynasty soldiers who were asking questions didn't pay attention to this little noise. Their Beishu language was not good enough to catch all the fast and vague dialects in an instant.
Dante Guinan understood.
He grew up in the Xiqiang camp. The Xiqiang language and the Beishuo language sound very similar in some ways. In order to please his master and to eavesdrop on some information from the guards' gossip so as to avoid being beaten, he had long ago trained himself to have a keen ear.
He can even imitate several different accents.
He seemed to have heard about Burhan from the nobles of Western Qiang. It was a sacred mountain worshipped by the people of Beishuo and was said to be very effective.
The name of the Eye of the Sacred Deer was strange, but he had heard of the word Sacred Deer before. The totem of a large tribe in Beishuo was a golden deer!
His heart suddenly started pounding, as if it was going to burst out of his chest.
He suddenly raised his head, looked at Wang Mengzi, opened his mouth, but subconsciously retracted it. He was afraid of saying something wrong, afraid that if it was useless, he would be scolded or even beaten.
Wang Mengzi was kicking the stones under his feet in annoyance and didn't pay any attention to him.
Seeing that the two herdsmen were about to be dragged away, Ding Guinan became anxious. What if they were to die here?
I don't know where he got the courage from, but he crawled over and hugged Wang Mengzi's calf.
Wang Mengzi was startled. He looked down and saw it was him. His brows furrowed even tighter. "You bastard! Get out of here! What are you doing causing trouble for!"
"General!" Ding Guinan's voice trembled as he spoke incoherently in a mixture of Chinese and Qiang dialect. "They said Burhan... was angry... the Eye of the Sacred Deer... sacrifice! High sacrifice!"
Everyone around was stunned, their eyes focused on the young man.
Wang Mengzi squatted down, and his big hands grasped Ding Guinan's thin shoulders like iron pliers: "What did you say? Speak slowly! Speak clearly!"
Ding Guinan felt so hurt by his grip that he took a deep breath and tried to organize his words, speaking out what he had heard and his own guesses in a disjointed manner.
"The Eye of the Sacred Deer might be a place with a large tribe of golden deer. They're afraid of the wrath of Mount Burhan, so they've all gone there to hide. They're going to hold a grand sacrifice there..."
Wang Mengzi stood up and took a few quick steps back and forth!
"Damn it, I get it! No wonder I can't find it! It turns out he's hiding to perform a sacrifice! Afraid of angering the mountain god? Haha! Great, great!"
He immediately called the oldest guide in the army.
When the old guide heard Burhan, his cloudy eyes lit up.
"General! I know Burhan Mountain! It's far to the northwest! As for the Sacred Deer Eye, I've never heard of it, but anyone with a golden deer totem must be the Borjigin tribe, a direct descendant of the Northern Shuo royal family! Their grand sacrifice must be held in a valley with abundant grass and water, easily defended and difficult to attack!"
The scope was narrowed down in an instant!
In the next few days, the team groped their way towards Burhan Mountain.
Ding Guinan became the treasure of the team.
Not only could he understand bits of conversation, but he could also decipher some unique markings carved into the stone.
"General, these three semicircles indicate that there is a water source nearby, but not much..." He said timidly, pointing to a rock painting.
"This wolf head symbol is crookedly drawn. It was left by a small tribe. It points in that direction..."
"This golden antler mark! It's new! They must have taken this route!"
He used his observation skills honed in survival, combined with the veteran's map and memory, to lead the team in the right direction bit by bit.
Finally, at an extremely hidden valley entrance, they found a large number of fresh horse hoof prints and wheel ruts.
The scouts reported that the valley entrance was heavily guarded, far more so than the small tribe they had encountered before!
There were endless felt tents inside, far more than the small tribes encountered before. One could even see the golden wolf flag and the royal flag!
"It's a big fish!" Wang Mengzi's eyes turned red with excitement, but he quickly calmed down. "Damn it! There are too many guards. It's hard to catch them with just a few of us!"
"We must find General Pan Hao! Only by uniting our forces can we overcome this tough challenge!"
He looked at Ding Guinan, his eyes more serious than ever before. "You son of a bitch, it all depends on you now! I'll give you a team of men and the fastest horses! You must find General Pan's troops! Tell him I'm blocking the big fish in Beishuo here! Tell him to come and encircle them quickly! Five days, five days at most! If you can't find them, I'll lead my men in and charge in myself!"
Ding Guinan's heart almost jumped out of his throat.
Find him? Let him lead the way? Can he do it?
But seeing Wang Mengzi's trusting eyes, he straightened his thin chest and shouted hoarsely, "Yes! General!"
The search was equally difficult. Mobei was too vast.
Ding Guinan and the soldiers were like headless flies. As the time passed, they saw that the amount of clean water they brought was getting less and less. Despair began to spread again.
Just when Ding Guinan was about to give up, he suddenly saw a few extremely inconspicuous marks on a sand dune in the distance. It was the communication code agreed upon by Wang Mengzi's troops, an arrow made of several stones!
"Over there! Over there!"
They ran wildly in the direction of the arrow, and finally before dark, they saw another Southern Dynasty army that was dusty but in neat order.
It’s Pan Hao’s team!
Ding Guinan crawled to Pan Hao's horse and told him the news and location of Wang Mengzi almost crying.
Pan Hao's spirits rose upon hearing this, and without hesitation, he said, "All troops, listen! Move lightly and quickly! Target Burhan Mountain and join forces with General Wang to attack the enemy!"
*
In the valley, Beishuo's bonfire was burning brightly.
In the largest golden-roofed royal tent in the center, Prince Erdun of Beishuo was holding a golden cup and drinking with several tribal leaders.
He was Tuoba Hong's uncle and held a high position. This time, he represented the Khan to stay in Mobei and preside over the grand sacrifice to bless the army's smooth southern expedition.
In his opinion, this was an absolutely safe rear area.
A Southern Dynasty person? Still fighting with the Khan in Heshuo!
"Hah! When the Khan returns triumphantly, my Beishuo cavalry will surely trample all over the mountains and rivers of the Southern Dynasty!" Prince Erdun laughed.
Outside the tent, there was suddenly a faint commotion, followed by a shrill horn sound!
"What's going on?" Prince Erdun put down his wine glass unhappily.
A guard rushed in in panic, "Prince! It's bad! There are fires everywhere outside the valley! There are also shouts and cries! It seems like the southerners are attacking!"
"Nonsense!" Prince Erdun didn't believe it at all. "Why are the southerners here? One of the tribes must have lost its way, or a wild animal must have startled the horses!"
However, instead of the commotion outside subsiding, it grew louder and closer.
Explosions and deafening shouts of killing could be heard from different directions! It was as if countless Southern Dynasty troops were attacking from all directions at the same time!
"Report! Confederate troops spotted at the eastern valley entrance!"
"Report! They're heading towards the altar!"
Wang Mengzi and Pan Hao joined forces. They sent half of their troops to set fires everywhere to bluff and create the illusion that a large army was approaching.
Although the Beishuo Army's remaining troops were large in number, they were stunned by the sudden all-round attack and had no idea where the enemy's main force was. For a time, the command was chaotic and everyone fought on their own.
Wang Mengzi and Pan Hao personally led the most elite main force and went straight to the king's tent and the sacrificial area!
"Kill! Capture Prince Beishuo alive!" Wang Mengzi took the lead, like a tiger descending from the mountain.
The battle instantly became intense, with swords clashing and blood and flesh flying everywhere.
Ding Guinan was caught up in the charging procession, his face pale with fear, and he could barely breathe. A dagger was also stuffed into his hand, and the cold touch made him tremble all over.
A Beishuo warrior howled and swung his sword at a fallen Southern Dynasty soldier. Ding Guinan was right next to him. He saw the fear in the soldier's eyes, just like his former self.
A surge of blood and energy suddenly rushed to the top of my head from nowhere.
"Ah!" He let out a discordant scream, closed his eyes, and stabbed the Beishuo warrior randomly with the dagger!
The Beishuo warrior didn't take the skinny monkey-like child seriously at all, and blocked it with a swing of his sword.
"Clang!" Ding Guinan felt a sharp pain in his palm, the dagger flew out of his hand, and he fell to the ground under the huge force.
The Beishuo warrior grinned fiercely, raised his sword and chopped at him!
Ding Guinan closed his eyes in despair.
The expected pain did not come, but instead a scream was heard.
He opened his eyes and saw the Beishuo warrior with the tip of a knife sticking out of his chest. He fell to the ground with a bang. Behind him was the old soldier who always silently shared his soup.
The old soldier yelled something at him, but it was unclear over the din of the battlefield.
Ding Guinan got up, his heart still beating wildly, but looking at the corpses of the Beishuo warriors on the ground and the Southern Dynasty soldiers fighting desperately around him, he picked up another scimitar on the ground. He no longer closed his eyes, but with red eyes, like a little wolf cub forced into a desperate situation, he followed the crowd and slashed at the figures wearing Beishuo leather robes with all his strength.
He was still very weak and had no idea what to do. He was almost injured several times, but was always stopped or rescued by his comrades nearby.
But he didn't retreat anymore.
Finally, the battle was over.
Wang Mengzi looked at Prince Erdun and other Beishuo nobles who were tied up tightly, and finally a hearty smile appeared on his face.
He turned his head and saw Ding Guinan sitting on a fallen saddle, staring blankly at the bloody scimitar in his hand.
There were a few spots of blood on the boy's face, his eyes were a little straight, and his hands were still shaking slightly.
Wang Mengzi strode over.
Ding Guinan raised his head and saw him. He subconsciously wanted to shrink his neck and give a flattering smile.
But Wang Mengzi didn't scold him or kick him.
He simply stretched out his blood-stained hand and slapped Ding Guinan's head hard. His movements were even a little rough, and his voice was hoarse but with a rare warmth: "Good boy, you are a real man!"
Ding Guinan was stunned.
That slap didn't hurt.
His nose felt sore and tears welled up without warning, mixing with the blood on his face. He didn't cry out loud, but his shoulders twitched slightly.
He lowered his head and looked at the scimitar in his hand, then raised his head and looked at Wang Mengzi and the tired Southern Dynasty soldiers around him.
In the days that followed, he would still have nightmares, and perhaps the whips of the Western Qiang people would appear in his dreams.
But he knew it was different.
From this moment on, his name was Ding Guinan.
He is no longer a dog slave.
He found something more important than being alive.
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